Since You've Been Gone & Now That You're Back
by Selene Romanov
Summary: An AU version of Johnny and Ava in Season 2, will they or won't they get back together? Ava asks Johnny for a favor...his response is... Read on and find out! ABANDONED.
1. Default Chapter

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This will be an AU version of Season 2, devoted to Johnny/Ava, other characters will be in the story if they apply. This chapter is based loosely on what happened in Eppy 1 of Season 2.

Plz Read & Review.

The sweet breeze of warmth kissed her face as she wandered outside to watch the sunrise. Simon was still asleep in her bed…..his question loomed over her head as it had for the last three months.

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"Ava marry me?"

Her head shouted at her to say yes….but her heart urged her to wait for Johnny….but it'd been three months since he'd left after that night.

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Damn him…for leaving that way.

A gentle hand caressed her waist, her fingers traced the hard ridges of his knuckles, her brow furrowed as she struggled with the need to want to change, knowing that change was inevitable.

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But I don't want to change…I like what I am, where I'm at in my life.

Turning to look at him, she closed her eyes and traced his features slowly. Something she'd done with Johnny at a much younger age. The feeling she'd gotten back then had been different from the one she was getting now.

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Back then, it had been love that had traced his features, his eyes gleamed with independence, his lips pouted sulkily waiting for her to kiss him. Shrieking with laughter, she had and that had led to more pleasurable pastimes….things better left in the past.

The shrill of the phone jarred her from her memory ridden state.

Ava wandered into the kitchen, her stomach was growling, opening the refrigerator, she perused her options and picked a can of yogurt and dished some up for herself.

The creak of the door opening, startled her. Expecting Bradin, she pasted a smile on her face.

Scruffy, bearded, piratical Johnny peered at her from behind a bag of his stuff.

"Ava." Nodding at her, he turned and closed the door.

"What are you doing here?" hands on her hips, yogurt forgotten.

"I came home," was his gruff reply.

"This isn't your home, you abandoned us three months ago, when you slipped out in the dead of night," the underlying meaning wasn't lost on him, even in the middle of the night, when he was dead tired from being on the road for the last six hours straight, so he could be home for breakfast.

"Nikki asked me to come back home," stiffly stood between them.

"Well fine, but you can stay with Jay, things have changed since you left," Ava grated fiercely at him.

"Like what?" Bleak eyes looked at her, searching for something.

"I'm engaged and the kids have moved on from thinking that you're worth idolizing, well except Nikki obviously," Ava's tone dripped with disdain.

"That's great Ava, if you're done tearing me apart, can we catch some shut-eye and you can finish tearing me apart tomorrow," raking a hand through his hand. "I've been on the road for the last six hours…."

"I'm just getting started Johnny Durant," aggressively sauntering forward, she pushed him onto the couch.

"Do you know what did you did to me, the night you left?" Ava yelled at him.

"What?" Johnny yawned.

"You killed something inside of me, anything that still had a chance of loving you died that night. How dare you come to me on the night that a man proposes to me and tell me that you need me, want another chance?" she screamed at him.

"Ava I-"

"How do you think I felt about that? It tore me apart, you wait until he proposes to me and then you just leave, evaporate, vanish like smoke. Damn it Johnny, how could you do that to me. It hurt so much." Her shoulders shook with the effort it took to control her emotions.

"I'm sorry, I was scared too, I didn't think I stood a chance that's why I ran, the longer I was away, the easier it became to stay away, I didn't want to come back and have my heart handed to me on a platter," eyes bleak with broken emotion. "Guess it's a little too late, you're engaged."

Turning away, he walked to the door, "I'm going to sleep on the beach, I'll move in with Jay, I'll try to stay out of your way." His eyes lingered on her one last time, before he shut the door.

The door clicked and Ava was once again alone.

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I'm back! Plz review.


	2. Chapter Two

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A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, sorry for the delay. This chapter is _loosely_ based on the last few eppys. Plz R&R!

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A month later

After the debacle of the wedding, struggling with her feelings, she was still torn up inside about where to go, what to do, what to feel.

Throwing her head back in frustration, she glared down at her sketch book, where wedding dresses danced across the page. Confusion was a big throbbing pain in her brain.

"Ava?" Susannah called from the kitchen.

"What?"

"Phone, it's Pierre from Paris," Susannah answered.

Groaning, Ava looked around for a sign, nothing. Her life was a big nothing lately. Pasting a fake smile on her face, she took the phone call.

After five minutes of debating with Pierre, arguing, bidding for the best that she could get, she hung up with him and starting jumping up and down in excitement.

"What? What is it?" Susannah pulled her down to earth.

"Paris, our line, fall and bridal, 2 weeks, In Style, Vanity Fair and People Magazine," Ava gasped out in shock.

"Oh my god," Susannah started jumping up and down, shrieking with joy.

"Ladies, what's going on?" Kolby ran into the room.

Susannah shrieked out the answer to him, he joined them, jumping up and down like a school girl.

"This is just what I need right now in my life, a chance to get away from Playa Linda and reflect on my life. I-" bashing her forehead with her hand. "The kids, what about them?"

Susannah stopped jumping for a second, she thought for a second. "Jay?"

"He's too much like a kid himself," Ava replied.

"Johnny?"

"I don't want to disrupt his new life, he's cut us out of it," Turning away to look out the window, ignoring the stab of pain that tore at her heart, thinking about him.

"Well we can ask?" Susannah said.

"Yeah, we can." Ava traced the glass with her fingers, looking out at the crashing waves.

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2 days later

Ava stood outside of Johnny's restaurant pacing back and forth, she peeked around the edge of the wisteria and saw him behind the bar mixing some drinks.

Gathering up her courage she walked into his restaurant and approached him. He looked so good up close.

"Hey Johnny, how's it going?"

"Good, can you hold on for a second?" Johnny said, putting the drinks on a tray he delivered them to a table and set them down.

Mona came out of the kitchen, hands on her hips, she sauntered up to Ava. "I thought I told you to stay away from him, he's moved on…with me." Looking at Johnny, she smiled, the smile a woman has when she's got a secret that only her man knows.

Ava's heart cracked, her eyes teared up, everything glossed over, Johnny came over.

Pushing past him, she stopped, when he grabbed her wrist.

"Ava's what wrong?" he looked at her, then at Mona. His brow furrowed as he processed what might've happened.

Mona stood, a sly smile on her face. Ava rigidly stood in his grasp. "Ava, what'd you come here for?"

"Nothing," her voice caught and she looked down.

"Mona, if you'll excuse us," he pushed Ava into his office down the back hall and shut the door.

"What's going on?" Johnny asked her, sitting on his desk.

Ava turned her back to him, struggling to get her emotions back under control.

Johnny turned her around, tipping her head up. "What are the tears for?"

"I just am going through an emotional time right now," she said.

"Okay then, why'd you come here?"

"To ask if you wouldn't mind looking after the kids for me for a couple weeks, just temporarily move back in," Ava asked, looking down at her feet.

"What's it in for me?" Johnny asked seriously.

"You'd be helping me out, Susannah and I-"

Johnny cut her off, "No Ava, you listen to me, I'm sick of this dancing back and forth routine, are we on or are we off."

"I tell you that I want a relationship with you, you pick Simon, fine I can live with that, I go away for three months, I come back and you treat me like a leper, fine, but now when I'm getting my life together, you ask this, I can't do it."

Visibly shaken by his outburst, she reached for the doorknob to run out of his life again.

"Damn it Ava, aren't you sick of being a coward, hiding behind your mask of ice and never acting on how you feel," Johnny's words raked her hard, shattering her mask of cool indifference.

"Yes, I feel, damn you, but I felt like I had to marry Simon, because he represented what a nuclear family is, If I had married you, then there would be chaotic emotion, with Simon, everything was black and white, with you, there's colors, chaos, emotions tearing me apart, I couldn't deal with it, I still can't, I don't know how." Ava collapsed in a chair in front of Johnny's desk.

"Well I'm going to help you," Johnny pulled her up into his arms, knocking her purse to the floor.

His strong arms bound her tightly to his chest, tracing her brow with his right hand, he slowly kissed her cheek, moving over to her ear and down to her neck, lightly sucking on her throbbing pulse. 

Her hands moved up, her left rubbing his back, her right tilting his head lightly to the right so she could kiss him. Her lips ate at his, her tongue delved into his, lightly tracing his teeth, rasping on the seam of his lips.

A groan of desire echoed out of his throat, their lips meshed faster and more furiously with each other. 

A light knock on the door tore them apart. Ava almost fell over the chair behind her. Johnny knocked his knee on the corner of his desk, lightly cursing.

"Be right out," he called.

"Okay, one of the customers wants to ask you about the special sauce." Mona called through the door.

"I should go," Ava leaned down to pick up her purse.

Johnny slammed her against the wall, her back hit the wood with a soft thud. He kissed her thoroughly and passionately.

"I'll let you know about the kids tomorrow," walking past her, he walked into the restaurant.

Ava touched her lips softly, feeling the ring of his passion, evident on her lips.

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More soon


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